Word.ws English Dictionary

defeating the purpose

defeating the purpose is the present participle and gerund of defeat the purpose.

Meaning of defeat the purpose

Verb

defeat the purpose (third-person singular simple present defeats the purpose, present participle defeating the purpose, simple past and past participle defeated the purpose)

  1. To undermine the act of doing something by having an opposite effect; to nullify.

Questions about defeating the purpose

What is defeating the purpose the present participle and gerund of?
Defeating the purpose is the present participle and gerund of defeat the purpose.

Words near defeating the purpose in the dictionary

  1. defeathering
  2. defeathers
  3. defeatican
  4. defeaticans
  5. defeating
  6. defeating the purpose
  7. defeatingly
  8. defeatism
  9. defeatisms
  10. defeatist
  11. defeatistly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defeating the purpose (page history and authors); defeat the purpose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “defeating the purpose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/defeating_the_purpose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.